Molly Armanino on the Challenges of the Freeride World Tour

Tahoe local Molly Armanino competed in the Freeride World Tour 2023-24 season as a wildcard entry, but in her first season on the tour ('22/'23), she earned the title of Vice World Champion. She also competed in Kings & Queens of Corbet's at Jackson Hole, receiving 3rd place.

She is not only a fierce competitor, but a vulnerable and raw personality in the ski industry, facing grief in stride and reassuring others they can overcome challenges life throws their way.

Her latest challenge was her crash at the Georgia stop of the Freeride World Tour, prompting her to miss the cut. But as always, Molly was upbeat, friendly, and unwilling to let it get her down. Check out Molly's self-described "biggest crash" in the embedded video below.

We caught up with Molly shortly after the crash back in March of 2024. Keep reading to learn more about the challenges of the FWT and more.

Molly Armanino Q&A- Freeride World Tour

I'm stoked to chat with you. I saw the footage from your crash at the Freeride World Tour, and knew I need to follow up.

"I'm happy to talk about it. It's pretty fresh in the in the memory, so I haven't really skied since, but, hopefully, tomorrow is the day. I'm a little hesitant, but I'm going to ski tomorrow and just not worry about slough too much."

Getting taken out by your own slough during a competition must be pretty disconcerting. Was that the first time that you've experienced that?

"Yeah. The face was way more loaded than I thought it was going to be. When I hit the first section of the kinda steeper face, I remember being really surprised and being like, 'there's actually a lot of snow in here.'

I've dealt with pow and slough before, but I haven't dealt with that much pow on that steep of face. It was pretty aggressive slough.

But I think I [made a mistake] and didn't take the extra turn to stay above my slough. I went straight to a safety zone that I thought was a safety zone. I tried to cut over and it just swiped me. I knew it was a bad, but it just all happened so fast.

Like, I knew it was a bad call to try, but I tried to jump over. I think just in between competition and trying to stick the flow, even if I made a mistake by not staying above my slough, I should have at least waited for my slough to pass whether or not that docked my fluidity in the contest.

I had a bleep in my thinking."

Would you have made this decision if you weren't competing? It sounds like there was a lot going on besides just getting down safely.

"Yeah. If I was just filming in the backcountry or something, I would've stopped. I could've been like, 'oh, they could just cut that out.' Or at least just slow down a little bit, for sure. I got into this comp mindset where it's just like: 'don't stop. Just go.'"

Have you been to Georgia before, to ski, and did you have any time to inspect?

"I've never been to Georgia before, but it was really cool. The mountains are insane. It's like this Alaskan outpost, but there are trees.

The terrain was a really, really cool mix. There's tons of couloirs, and we went up there a little early. So we got to ski around, and do a few hikes and feel out the snow. But we weren't able to see the venue until the day before.

So we had one day to look down from the top and from the bottom. From the top, you can kind of see a lot of it."

Who were you there with, just other competitors, or did you take anyone to travel with?

"I took my boyfriend; he lucked out on that. You kinda just end up hanging out with all the freeride world tour homies. I hung out with Lily Bradley a lot. She's a nice little shredder."

It feels like there was a time when you could just drop cliffs and you would score well. Now, it seems like you have to do tricks, and it's just going in this direction where it's so intense.

"Yeah. Totally. I know. There's definitely a weird strategy involved with trying to make it into finals. This last comp for me, I had to do something pretty sick. You just want to shoot for podium, every comp. And at this level that means doing tricks."

So, what is the rest of your season look like?

"I have this project I was trying to pull off. We have a really strong community here in South Lake (Tahoe). I want to touch a little bit on climate change in this project about my season.

But that is stressful too, because I have to figure out the zones and timing it right. It's all backcountry."

What prompted you to start competing?

"When I was around 20, about 4 years ago, I saw people skiing really fluid lines, and I didn't know how to do that yet. I could jump off cliffs, but I just never flowed that well. So I thought it would be cool to compete in the interest of learning how freeride works in the first place.

It turned out then it got really competitive. I was like, 'I can do this.' It was a very humble goal at the beginning. I didn't actually do that well the first couple years, and and it took me a while to get used to it.

Last year, I did really well, and ended up getting frostbite on my toes so I couldn't finish the series. But I got a wild card, so that's why the tour started.

I always thought, 'I didn't wanna be an influencer. I didn't think I could be an influencer, and I also don't really want to be an influencer.' I can be there. It would be good to gain recognition in the industry that way. At least I would have results."

I imagine that's helpful, also for putting out this new film, getting sponsorships or getting people to to host premieres or whatnot.

"Yeah. For sure. I know. And that's hard too. Every year, I think that I'm a pro. I'm like, 'yes. I made it. I'm being a pro.' Then, every year, I'm reminded that I'm actually still kind of a rookie.

This film has been really challenging, and I'm learning a lot. And it's my first year doing a film. We filmed with my friend McKenna Peterson. She came to Tahoe for two weeks and we filmed. But it was a rough start this year. It was very low tide. So we didn't get a lot of shots, but we she's part of it. And then there is the tour segment.

It's basically going to be a crash reel. But in the spring, I'm hoping to do some filming in the Eastern Sierras."

Do you have any parting thoughts for the people of Powder?

"The tour has been a fun learning experience, and I think all of these experiences are just kind of helping me become a better skier, person, whatever. I'm bummed that I didn't make it to finals, but I'm also psyched that I skied something I wanted to ski."

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